Time Will Tell
by AmberRunnel
Summary: A year after Crisis on Infinite Earth, Team Flash is gone. Corrupted by the meta-human Psyche and the death of Iris and Joe West, Barry abandons the values that have led him through six years of living as the Flash and realizes that the villains he'd sacrificed so much to defeat had been right.


/_Note: This is a work in progress that will be rewritten eighty times. If the "/"symbol is present before any italicized text, it's a note from me: the author. I will be specifying the names of the known heroes when described by someone who does not know their names, as well as address and provide explanations for any inconsistencies regarding the story and plot regarding how it relates to the TV Show (Which has plot holes left and right as well, so bear with me)._

_This story takes place Post-Crisis. _

The fall of Central City didn't begin with the rampage of the meta-human Psych. It didn't even begin with the corruption of the Flash.

It began seven years ago, with the particle accelerator that changed the course of history.

. . .

Amber had two problems.

The first was that a psychopath was running around and killing meta-humans and criminals unless they agreed to do his bidding. And, as a meta-human, she was a potential target.

The second was that she had a math test and no time to study for it.

Guess which one she was really worried about?

Yep, the math test.

The annoying part was that it would be so easy to use her powers and do perfectly fine on the test. Just read and memorize the entire textbook in the space of twenty minutes, and she'd be good for the rest of the year.

And she would be killed. See, that was the other annoying part, and the one she could do absolutely nothing about.

Let's start at the beginning of the surreal story that has become the history of Central City, shall we? It'll give you some perspective.

Seven years ago, Harrison Wells and his glorious team of scientists built a revolutionary particle accelerator they claimed would change all of science. They launched it, and it blew up.

Good job, S.T.A.R. Labs.

People died, they were shunned, and it was all in the past. Until someone with superpowers started robbing banks.

Tornado warning, anyone?

The guy would've destroyed the entire city, but another superpowered dude swept in to save everybody.

And kept saving people until the city all realized a bunch of people had suddenly received superpowers from the particle accelerator.

Cue the scientific stuff everyone tries to explain.

Central City accidentally became a tourist destination for those who wanted to see the Flash, a speedster with yellow (or orange, nobody could decide) lightning that ran around stopping evil metahumans (and crime in general).

And everything was great, until Zoom.

The name for Central City's first supervillain wasn't all that terrifying. Nobody knew where it came from, but even Amber's friends quietly mocked it when no teachers were listening.

Then he murdered a bunch of policemen at Jitter's Coffee and nobody was laughing anymore.

Speedster against speedster, blue against orange, meta-human against meta-human. The pair was spotted running around a couple of times, and then he was supposedly vanquished.

Nobody was there to see it.

/_ I've put Zoom as the first supervillain because Reverse-Flash (and Savitar) didn't have much public drama. From the perspective of a regular Central City citizen, nobody really knows about either of them. _

Then, the Thinker was next. Not much was known about him, either. Went against the Flash a few times, then almost made the entire world dumb.

It was an odd evil plan, and Amber still wasn't sure where the satellite came from. Corrupted with dark matter, it rained down in pieces and hit a lot of people. Corrupted with dark matter, it created more meta-humans, and brand-new meta-tech to cause even more problems for the Flash.

By then, a couple more superheroes were running around to help. There was Vibe, the portal guy. Elongated Man, who could stretch and swing around the city like spiderman (who unfortunately didn't exist) and Frost, whose powers are pretty self-explanatory.

Then came Cicada.

He murdered meta-humans, specifically. Flash eventually stopped him after a while, and everyone was happy. Vibe was dead for a while, then not, then never seen again.

Oh, don't forget the alien invasion.

That one brought a bunch of meta-humans together. And non-powered heroes. Starling City's Green Arrow and Canary came over to help. People reported a guy whose head was on fire turning a huge metal comet into water before it could destroy the city. The Flash and a woman who could fly and shoot lasers from her eyes raced around the world. Then the aliens vanished, never returned, and it was a good day.

Then the next-worst thing: Nazis.

Nazis invaded the city.

It still sounded crazy, but it happened. Suddenly there was an evil Arrow and evil Supergirl, and yet another speedster who had red lightning instead.

They were all defeated too.

But wait, there's more. Red skies threatened, red skies vanished, and the Anti-Monitor tried to destroy the entire multiverse. Him and his not-evil counterpart, the Monitor, apparently witnessed the construction of the universe and yadda yadda.

The Anti-Monitor found a bunch of villains to help him, including the red lightning speedster. The Monitor found a bunch of heroes, plus some reasonable villains that didn't want the world to end, to help him. Including the red lightning speedster.

Nobody was sure why there were two red lightning speedsters running around, but it happened.

Heroes died. Elongated Man died. Green Arrow died. More unnamed heroes died.

But the multi-verse was saved, and the Flash was once more the hero of the city.

Until Psyche arrived.

A meta-human with the ability to corrupt minds, she created a force of meta-humans to take down the Flash. Upon learning his real name, she killed the two people closest to him: Joe and Iris West. The captain of the CCPD and his daughter.

She also corrupted his mind as well, but that didn't stop him from murdering her.

Nobody was happy with that.

Well, one death led to two and two led to three. Psyche was dead, but her powers had still driven him mad. Frost tried to stop him, even Supergirl gave a dramatic inspirational speech.

Didn't work.

Eventually, the entire city turned against the Flash. Meta-humans of various abilities made themselves known and tried to stop him.

He killed them all.


End file.
